Dispesitional Bias in Trained Therapists' Diagnoses: Does It Exist?1

Therapists have been charged with a dispositional bias in their diagnoses of clients' problems. While a, review of prior research revealed considerable evidence that at least some trained therapists were more dispositional in their diagnoses than nonprofessionals, there was no clear evidence that therapists' dispositional diagnoses were in error. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to try to detect error in trained therapists' diagnoses. Twelve trained therapists and 16 untrained nonprofessionals each conducted intake interviews with two clients (confederates). Employing a technique based on attribution theory, one client presented a problem that was relatively situational; the other presented a problem that was relatively dispositional. Consistent with previous research, trained therapists were more dispositional in their diagnoses than were untrained nonprofessionals, suggesting that some bias did exist. But there was no clear evidence that therapists were less sensitive than nonprofessionals to differences between situational and dispositional problems. It was concluded that, to the degree that bias implies error, the charge of bias in therapists' diagnoses remains unproven.     

The Disjunction Effect: Does It Exist for Two-Step Gambles?

One of the basic axioms of the rational theory of decision under uncertainty is Savage's (1954) Sure Thing Principle. It states that if Prospect x is preferred to Prospect y knowing that Event A occurred, and if x is preferred to y knowing that A did not occur, then x should also be preferred to y when it is not known whether A occurred. Tversky and Shafir (1992) claim to have demonstrated a violation of this principle in two-step gambles, which is termed a disjunction effect. The present article evaluates the replicability of the disjunction effect for two-step gambles. The findings show that people do not violate the sure thing principle in repeated gambles. The validity of alleged violations in other paradigms is discussed.     

Bibliotherapy: Does It Work?

Bibliotherapy continues to be used by counselors as an adjunctive technique in their professional work. This article updates the research literature and reports conflicting responses to the question, “Does bibliotherapy work?”     

Male Gender Role Conflict,Depression, and Help Seeking: Do College Men Face Double Jeopardy?

To investigate the previously untested hypothesis that college men with higher levels of male gender role conflict (MGRC) experience both increased risk of depression and more negative attitudes toward seeking counseling services, this study used latent variable modeling to examine these relations. Two components of MGRC were identified: restriction-related MGRC, which predicted 25% of the variance in help-seeking attitudes, and achievement-relatedMGRC, which predicted 21% of the variance in depression. It is suggested that outreach programs designed to increase college men's willingness to use counseling services attempt to counter the option-limiting aspects of male gender roles, whereas counseling with depressed college men incorporate an examination of their perceptions of success and achievement.     

Does Occupational Stereotyping Still Exist?

We surveyed 113 college students regarding their views of certain occupational stereotypes. Our results indicated that in this population gender was related to the subjects' views of occupations as either male, female, or neutral, and that the father's primary occupation significantly affected the subjects' views of only one occupation—clinical sociologist. The mother's occupation seemed to have no effect.     

Does DSM-IV Asperger's Disorder Exist?

DSM-IV criteria for autistic and Asperger's disorders were applied to 157 children with clinical diagnoses of autism or Asperger's disorder. All children met the DSM-IV criteria for autistic disorder and none met criteria for Asperger's disorder, including those with normal intelligence and absence of early speech delay. The reason for this was that all children had social impairment and restricted and repetitive behavior and interests (required DSM-IV symptoms for both autistic and Asperger's disorders) and all had a DSM-IV communication impairment (which then qualified them for a diagnosis of autistic disorder and not Asperger's disorder). Communication problems exhibited by all children were impaired conversational speech or repetitive, stereotyped, or idiosyncratic speech (or both), which are DSM-IV criteria for autism. These findings are consistent with those of 5 other studies and indicate that a DSM-IV diagnosis of Asperger's disorder is unlikely or impossible.     

Does the Higgs Mechanism Exist?

This paper explores the argument structure of the concept of spontaneous symmetry breaking in the electroweak gauge theory of the Standard Model: the so‐called Higgs mechanism. As commonly understood, the Higgs argument is designed to introduce the masses of the gauge bosons by a spontaneous breaking of the gauge symmetry of an additional field, the Higgs field. The technical derivation of the Higgs mechanism, however, consists in a mere reshuffling of degrees of freedom by transforming the Higgs Lagrangian in a gauge‐invariant manner. This already raises serious doubts about the adequacy of the entire manoeuvre. It will be shown that no straightforward ontic interpretation of the Higgs mechanism is tenable, since gauge transformations possess no real instantiations. In addition, the explanatory value of the Higgs argument will be critically examined.     

Does the Subject of Experience Exist in the World?

In this paper I attempt to show, by considering a number of sources, including Wittgenstein, Sartre, Thomas Nagel and Spinoza, but also adding something crucial of my own, that it is impossible to construe the subject of experience as an object among other objects in the world. My own added argument is the following. the subject of experience cannot move in time along with material events and processes or it could not be aware of the passage of time, hence neither of change nor of motion. the subject cannot therefore be identified with any neural process, function, or location since whatever goes on in the CNS is necessarily objective and part of the temporal flux. However this does not imply any form of dualism for experiences exist only for the subject whose experiences they are and hence they have no objective reality.     

Weak Discernibility in Quantum Mechanics: Does It Save PII?

The Weak Principle of the Identity of Indiscernibles (weak PII), states that numerically distinct items must be discernible by a symmetrical and irreflexive relation. Recently, some authors have proposed that weak PII holds in non relativistic quantum mechanics, contradicting a long tradition claiming PII to be simply false in that theory. The question that arises then is: are relations allowed in the scope of PII? In this paper, we propose that quantum mechanics does not help us in deciding matters concerning that problem, since that is a metaphysical problem rather than a quantum mechanical one. We argue further that weak PII is unmotivated on metaphysical grounds. We examine three metaphysical theses (bundle theory, counting, empiricism) that may provide reasons for one to sustain PII, and we conclude that weak PII gets no independent motivation from them.     

Love: What Is It, Why Does It Matter, and How Does It Operate?

ABSTRACT— Love is a perennial topic of fascination for scholars and laypersons alike. Whereas psychological science was slow to develop active interest in love, the past few decades have seen considerable growth in research on the subject, to the point where a uniquely psychological perspective on love can be identified. This article describes some of the more central and well-established findings from psychologically informed research on love and its influence in adult human relationships. We discuss research on how love is defined, the significance of love for human activity and well-being, and evidence about the mechanisms by which love is believed to operate. We conclude by describing several key questions and potentially important new directions for the next wave of psychological science.     

Does Depression Affect Clinical Practice?

Abstract

While recent autobiographical accounts of women psychotherapists with depressive illnesses have provided vivid and compelling portraits of therapists' experiences in therapy (e.g., Jamison, 1995; Manning, 1995), further research is needed to clarify the impact that depression and its treatment have upon both collegial relationships and clinical practice. A subset of the membership of the Association for Women in Psychology (AWP) was surveyed concerning therapists' experiences with depression and its treatment. Of 220 respondents, 76% reported some form of depressive illness. Eighty-five percent of respondents indicated that they participated in personal therapy. When evaluating their clinical work, respondents reported both positive and negative consequences resulting from their depression. While some respondents noted improvement in collegial relationships, many felt judged and avoided.     

Scientific Jury Selection: Does It Work?

This article describes different methodologies used to predict the likely disposition of jurors in order to guide the exercise of peremptory challenges. The actual use of these methodologies in 27 telephone surveys, 9 focus groups, and 2 studies of jurors after the case was decided is examined. It is concluded that the efficacy of scientific jury selection depends, in part, on the type of case.     

Is Symptomatic Long QT Syndrome Associated with Depression in Women and Men?

We examined whether long QT syndrome (LQTS) mutation carrier status or symptomatic LQTS are associated with depression, and whether there are sex differences in these potential relationships. The sample comprised 782 participants (252 men). Of the 369 genetically defined LQTS mutation carriers, 169 were symptomatic and 200 were asymptomatic. The control group consisted of 413 unaffected relatives. Depression was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). No association was found for LQTS mutation carrier status with depression. The multinomial logistic regression showed that LQTS mutation carrier men with arrhythmic events scored higher on depression compared with the control group, even when adjusting for age, β-blockers, antidepressants, and social support (OR = 1.09, 95 % CI [1.02, 1.15], p = .007). The binary logistic regression comparing symptomatic and asymptomatic LQTS mutation carriers showed that symptomatic LQTS was associated with depression in men (OR = 1.10, 95 % CI [1.03, 1.19], p = .009). The results were unchanged when additionally adjusted for education. These findings suggest that symptomatic LQTS is associated with depression in men but not in women. Overall, however, depression is more frequent in women than men. Thus, regular screening for depression in LQTS mutation carriers and their unaffected family members can be important.     

Motive Satisfaction in Chronic Pain Patients: Does It Improve in Multidisciplinary Inpatient Treatment and,if so,Does It Matter?

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - According to consistency theory, insufficient motive satisfaction (motivational incongruence) is associated with psychological distress and...     

Forgiveness: Who Does It and How Do They Do It?

Forgiveness is a suite of prosocial motivational changes that occurs after a person has incurred a transgression. People who are inclined to forgive their transgressors tend to be more agreeable, more emotionally stable, and, some research suggests, more spiritually or religiously inclined than people who do not tend to forgive their transgressors. Several psychological processes appear to foster or inhibit forgiveness. These processes include empathy for the transgressor, generous attributions and appraisals regarding the transgression and transgressor, and rumination about the transgression. Interpreting these findings in light of modern trait theory would help to create a more unified understanding of how personality might influence forgiveness.     

The MMPI: Does It Have a Place in Counseling Psychology Training?

Although a number of surveys have examined psychological assessment training in clinical psychology programs, studies about assessment training in counseling psychology programs have been all too few. This survey gathered information about the place of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) in the training of counseling psychology students. A 3-page questionnaire was mailed to alt directors of APA-approved counseling psychology programs for completion by the individual primarily responsible for teaching the MMPI. Forty (85%) of the 47 questionnaires were returned, it was found that the MMPI (a) was taught in one or more courses in virtually all programs; (b) was viewed as useful by most respondents: and (c) was included, with same variability, in practicum training and on doctoral qualifying examinations. As in clinical psychology programs, the MMPI appeared to occupy a place of importance in the assessment training of counseling psychologists.     

Parent Involvement in Early Intervention for Disadvantaged Children: Does It Matter?

This study investigated the association between parent involvement in early intervention and children's later school competence. Parents (N = 704) of children participating in the Chicago Longitudinal Study were interviewed retrospectively about their school involvement in preschool and kindergarten. Parents reported on the activities in which they participated and their frequency of program participation. Results indicated that even after controlling for family background, the number of activities in which parents participated in preschool and kindergarten was significantly associated with higher reading achievement, with lower rates of grade retention at age 14 (eighth grade), and with fewer years in special education. The frequency of parent involvement was only marginally associated with reading achievement but was associated with lower rates of grade retention and fewer years in special education. A confirmatory analysis indicated that teacher ratings of parent involvement in first and second grade were significantly associated with higher reading achievement in eighth grade, lower grade retention rates, and lower rates of special education placement through eighth grade. Findings support the benefits of parent involvement in early childhood programs.